Life's gotten busy lately. Sometimes art needs to take precedence & remind us of the beauty in this world.
Today my wife and I ventured across the river from Wisconsin to Minnesota, to the University of Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. I decided I needed to have a little fun and pulled out a few of my old pre-digital "prime" (aka not zoom) lenses.
I love the arboretum. It's a great mix of formal gardens and 12 miles (give or take a few) of walking paths through upper Midwest forests and prairie.
I hope you enjoy the pictures.
I took this (like most of the photos here) with my trusty old 100mm macro lens. I love this photo - it really demonstrates what I think is a truth about photography, that it's not about capturing "reality". Photography reflects the perspective of the photographer and the equipment.
This bumblebee was buzzing around and I was lucky enough to get a picture of it with the camera hand-held... because it was not going to stick around long enough for me to set up a tripod!
This is a hibiscus. One of those crazy flowers that you can't believe came from something in nature...
The arboretum has some paths going through prairie, although it might more accurately be called oak savanna (prairie with scattered oaks). This bluestem caught my eye, it was only afterwards that I saw the contrasting slice of green leaf that I think really adds to the picture.
Yes, we have cicadas here, too. Ugly when you look close up. It was alive, but was slow enough that I managed to stick the lens in its face and take this without a tripod.
It is the last day of summer. In all of the green, this was one reminder that fall is coming. (I start work tomorrow, so I don't know if I needed any reminders.)